CS: It wasn't until I had begun the first few chapters of my Galactica book that I really decided to renovate my page to reflect my interest in Battlestar Galactica. I had watched the Battlestar Galactithon on the Sci-Fi Channel a couple of years earlier and had not stopped thinking about the show since. So, with my interest in the original series combined with my interest in the development of my book occupying so many of my thoughts, it seemed natural to me that my web page should deal with the same topic.

CS: My best moments are by far the wonderful complements that people have sent to me about the site as a whole as well as about what they thought of my Book. After all, they are the ones I put the site up for.

CS: It is an epic of the human experience. There is so much about the plight of the colonial survivors that connects to the situation of groups today as well as those throughout history. We cheer for the underdog who fights to survive in the face of overwhelming odds. Another thing that people like so much about Galactica is the fact that the "bad guys" are completely bad, while the "good guys" are more difficult to explain when constricted to using just black and white. There is plenty of gray area to be found in some of the characters that adds a sense of reality to the characters.

CS: Actually I have three episodes that I could pick out as being my favorites. The first episode would be Lost Planet of the Gods. That was the episode that most firmly tied our legends into the history of the colonials. Little is said about what happened on Kobol that caused the planet to die, and that leaves it to us to speculate about what we think the reasons were. The next episode would have to be The Living Legend. There is no way that this episode could help becoming a legend unto itself. It was just such a monumental event for the fleet to discover that there was another part of the colonial society that had survived. That was made even more dramatic by the fact that Commander Cain was leading that group. The internal struggle for command was played beautifully alongside the fight against the Cylons. The third episode that I identify as a favorite is Experiment in Terra. It was nice to see the fleet encounter a fairly sophisticated society for a change. Every other planet they visited was home to fairly primitive societies compared to that of the colonies. I also like the way the point was made concerning the conflict between the Nationalists and the Eastern Alliance. It was an obvious parallel drawn to the conflict that the cold war brought us to the brink of on a few occasions.

CS: Well, I started thinking about the possibility of a Battlestar Galactica book way back in 1990 just before I was set to graduate from high school. It wasn't until the end of 1996 that I actually wrote down the first words of the book. Actually, the first chapter I wrote wasn't meant to be the first chapter of the book itself, but was supposed to be the text of a document that the colonials would find that recounted the early history of Kobol and the events leading up to the exodus. At the time I had no idea how much of the book I would write before I came to the place where that chapter would be inserted, and even now that the book is over 110 pages long on a regular sized sheet of paper it is still not near where it will be put in. Other than that first chapter, I had written about eighty pages when disaster struck. The computer I was writing the book on decided to erase the entire file one night. All I was left with were the first nineteen pages that I had printed out early on during the writing. I was so discouraged I almost gave up and scrapped the entire project for good, but eventually started with those first few pages and began to slowly reconstruct the story. I think I probably condensed what had covered those eighty pages before into around thirty or forty since it was so frustrating trying to recapture the same feel in the work that I had before. So far in the book, I have used mainly the characters from the original show although most are in different positions since I have also marked the same passage of time that has gone by since the series went off of the air. There are a few new characters of course, but the majority of the story is centered around Apollo and those in his circle of friends.

CS: I've tried to show some of the internal thoughts and feelings of the characters in the writing, as well as developing strong relationships that the characters express externally through words or actions. In my book, Apollo is the commander and Sheba is his colonel, so they struggle to keep their relationship a secret. Starbuck and Cassie are more of an item than ever even though Starbuck still enjoys starting rumors about his escapades. Boxy, who has grown up to become colonial warrior, meets and falls in love with a young woman. The council is up to its usual misguided antics until Apollo puts them in their place and sends them packing. Baltar is back and just as mean as ever. Apollo is developing abilities he never knew he had, and Starbuck becomes more responsible than anyone ever thought possible. A new viper is on the way as well.

CS: Actually, if I had not sat down to watch TV at the exact moment that I did one day the idea may have never come to me. I had been on the computer trying to finish off a new chapter of my book and decided to take a break from it for a while. I was still thinking about Battlestar Galactica when I looked up at the TV to see a shot outside the U.N. showing the flags of all of the countries flying. That made me wonder if the colonies were represented by flags as well. I remembered the row of flags flying behind Serina in Saga of a Star World as she was giving her news report. I went over and pulled out that tape and started watching it. What I saw was that the flags were there, but none of them could be seen clearly enough to glean any details from them. I eventually scanned through every episode and discovered that even though flags were often present, none were ever displayed prominently enough. I did get a partial look at some at the ceremony at the beginning of Take the Celestra, but even those were mostly obscured and I had no way of knowing what they were meant to represent. They may have been flags for the colonies, but there were only a few of them so I guessed that they were likely just ceremonial flags representing different military groups. I e-mailed several people and asked them if they knew of any flag designs that had already been done and everyone told me that they did not know of any. So, I decided to give it a try.

CS: I am trying to use as much information from the original series as possible, but there is actually very little information divulged in the show about any of the colonies other than Caprica. I have found some information about the colonies on the internet that people learned from reading the books that went along with the series. I am incorporating information linked to the corresponding signs of the zodiac in the designs as well. Most of the background colors for the flags are taken from the official color assigned to each zodiac sign, and some of the flags have symbols on them that are derived directly from the sign. The flag for Aquaria uses just such a symbol, but it is a symbol of my own design and not one that was taken directly from a preformed image dealing with the sign. I have also done research into Egyptian, Mayan, Native American, and Mesopotamian histories to find elements that could be used.

CS: Well, like everyone else, I am hoping that Universal can settle any disputes as to who has the rights to Battlestar Galactica. I don't think there is any way at this point that they can help but realize what a broad base of fan support lies behind the revival effort. Once the revival actually starts as either a new movie, series or both, I am willing to play any role that I may be able to fill to continue my support of Battlestar Galactica. If no role of direct involvement such as that should arise for me then I will certainly continue the work on my book and my web site. Since I have a degree in theatre that I am not doing much with right now I have been thinking of writing a new play about the Galactica universe. I actually have already started working on the designs for what would be a very complicated series of sets. So, I'll just have to wait and see what the future may hold.

CS: I think it is wonderful to know that there are so many people out there who, like myself, would like to see the return of Battlestar Galactica. I think that Universal may have gone ahead and allowed Glen Larson to continue his movie project if the fans had not made them understand that the vast majority of us want to see the show return featuring the same original cast members who first captured out imagination. Hopefully, they will soon give Richard permission to move forward on his project since it is what we have all been asking for.

CS: The writing is on the wall. We just have to wait for Universal to open the door so the world can read it. Once that happens I think Battlestar Galactica will be on the minds of sci-fi fans for some time to come.

CS: Three words: DO YOUR HOMEWORK. When I started my page I didn't have any idea that there were so many other Galactica sites out there. Once I discovered it, I found it very useful to explore as many of those pages as possible and see what it was that everyone else was doing. From that you can pick out the things about those pages that you like and the things that you don't. You may want to include some of the same types of things on your page, but don't try to make it a carbon copy of any other site. Try to find something that the other sites have little of or something that they don't have at all that you think should be there and build that into your page. Maybe the thing that will tell you if you are getting it right or not will be the comments that people send to you about the page. Have fun with it! Good Luck!